Random Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True (19 items)

(#1) Lincoln's Assassination

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was not the act of a crazed lone gunman, but an organized conspiracy of four shooters to kill the president, vice-president, and Secretary of State in one massive coup.

Only John Wilkes Booth successfully carried out his role, with the other two planned shootings resulting in Secretary of State William Seward being wounded, and Vice President Johnson being spared by the cowardice of his planned killer.
(#4) The Black Hand Assassinates Franz Ferdinand

A secret society, called The Black Hand, made up of Serbian nationals seeking to unify various Serbian enclaves, conspired to assassinate the Austrian Archduke. Their goal was to break off the southern Slavic provinces of Austria-Hungary and create a unified Slavic nation.

Six members traveled to Sarajevo to carry out the deed, having been trained and equipped by additional conspirators in the Serbian military. One of them, Serbian student Gavrilo Princip, succeeded. His act initiated the First World War.
(#7) The Tuskegee Experiment

This shameful and racist conspiracy unfolded over decades, as the CDC (working with the Tuskegee Institute) knowingly withheld potentially lifesaving treatments from Black men with syphilis under the guise of a medical experiment. Once the conspiracy became public, hearings were held and a $10 million settlement was reached for its victims – along with lifetime medical care for their families and no-cost burials.
(#10) MK-ULTRA

The infamous MK-ULTRA experiment ran for 20 years starting in 1953, and involved citizens unknowingly being dosed with mind-altering LSD and other drugs by CIA doctors to study effective ways to carry out mind control.

While the goal was to advance US intelligence and special operations capabilities, it failed to achieve the desired results and violated ethical medical codes and basic human rights laws. It wasn't until 1976 that President Ford enacted an Executive Order to prohibit experimental drug use on human subjects without their informed consent.
(#17) GlaxoSmithKline Shenanigans
Executives at the pharmaceutical giant conspired to, among other things, illegally promote certain products to treat diseases off label, hide incriminating safety data that questioned the efficacy of these drugs, fix prices, and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for promoting their drugs. A massive criminal investigation followed, and GSK was fined $3 billion, the largest fine ever levied against any pharma company by any government.
(#18) Apple E-Book Price-Fixing

In July 2013, Apple agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for over $450 million, alleging that the computing monolith had conspired with five publishing companies to drive up e-book prices, in an effort to thwart Amazon. A Federal judge in New York agreed that the plot constituted a conspiracy to drive Amazon out of business and hurt competitive practices.

However, even after the decision, Amazon still controlled close to two-thirds of the e-book market, often fixing prices themselves, selling e-books at a loss to get customers to buy other products.